


The 'M' Word

by rowanthestrange_yugihell



Series: Stepping Stones [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Everybody Comes Back AU, Gen, Kaiba’s Awkward Relationship With Clarke’s Three Laws, Playing In Someone Else’s Sandbox
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-30
Updated: 2017-03-30
Packaged: 2018-10-13 01:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10503168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowanthestrange_yugihell/pseuds/rowanthestrange_yugihell
Summary: In which Mana struggles with …a branch of physics not currently understood, and Kaiba helps.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evexe-n (manatsuko)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/manatsuko/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Fifteen Steps of Insanity: The (Second) Life and Woes of a Former Pharaoh](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10237307) by [evexe-n (manatsuko)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/manatsuko/pseuds/evexe-n). 



* * *

  


They’re stood in the middle of the garden, Kaiba attempting to win an argument, Mana attempting to mediate, and Mahad attempting to get on with his day.

“No, it’s not,” Kaiba brandishes his physics book at Mahad. Literally _his_ book, written under the pseudonym Dr. Kai E. Boast.

“You can have science, you can have technology, you can have currently unexplained phenomena, but you can’t have magic!”

Wordlessly, Mahad sets his book on fire.

  


* * *

  


Kaiba stamps the thing out on the grass and throws himself onto the garden bench. His gaze switching between Mana and Mahad’s practicing and the smouldering book, swapping whenever the other gets too aggravating to focus on any more. Which is approximately every four seconds.

Atem and Set will be duelling somewhere in one of the fully set up arena rooms, getting the full hard-light experience. Set may not be as interested in duelling as they are, but both he and Atem clearly miss their more hands-on approach to the game; particularly during Mana and Mahad’s sessions, which their lack of items now excludes them from joining.

At first it seemed like all of their … _unusual abilities_ had been left behind. While Kaiba had no way of knowing whether Mahad was always this sullen, his apprentice’s reaction seemed to indicate not. Mana at least seemed able to bounce back well enough, and was easily distracted by modern technology, food, or anything with glitter.

However Kaiba kept coming across Mahad staring at objects, or rubbing his hands together, or muttering under his breath. While the concept of … _Mahad’s area of expertise_ annoyed him, Kaiba could appreciate a refusal to give in to the universe’s demands. 

Sure enough, a few months after they had settled in, on one otherwise peaceful evening, there came an excited and entirely unfamiliar sound of manic laughter. Mahad had rushed into the room, pulled a squeaking Mana into a crushing hug and half carried her from the room to see what he’d done. That was when the sinking feeling in Kaiba’s stomach had begun. It had yet to leave.

Really, most of what they could do was negligible. Nothing dangerous enough to get them captured and dissected or turned into weapons. Nobody wants to believe something is … _beyond the known laws of physics_ if they can instead dismiss it as mundane. 

He’s aware of the hypocrisy.

It’s not that he doesn’t believe in the evidence of his senses. He’s moved past desperate denials, and now only describes things as hallucinations when he thinks it will make Atem twitch (or laugh). But there’s something about calling what’s happening ‘magic’. It’s like admitting that it is by its very nature, inexplicable. 

He’s Seto Kaiba. Greatest mind in a generation - possibly the greatest mind in history. Nothing is allowed to be inexplicable to him.

He kicks the burned physics book across the grass. 

  


* * *

  


In fairness to Mana, she hasn’t stopped trying to explain it to him. Kaiba strongly believes she has the makings of an excellent philosopher. If she could keep her thoughts on track for more than two minutes at a time that is.

Clearly Mahad is more focussed on the practicalities of … _what they’re doing_ , rather than why it occurs. He refuses to engage Kaiba on the subject, on the grounds that ‘he is the least magical person that he has ever encountered’. Kaiba considers that a compliment.

Mana on the other hand will happily chew over his questions-posed-as-arguments, returning an hour or a day later with some attempt at an answer, without getting offended by his bluntness. 

As per usual, she comes and joins him after she’s finished. She scoops up the book before sitting down cross legged beside him.

“Sorry about that.” She says, passing the book over. 

He harrumphs. In all honesty he’s not particularly annoyed. It’s mostly intact and legible, but the contents are somewhat flawed anyway. He’d rewrite it if his new knowledge couldn’t also be applied to more dangerous goals. He could advance science by fifty years, possibly more, but giving people - by which he means the military - the ability to cross dimensions? No. That’ll stay in his head. Most of it he’s never even written down, just in case. That and it would take him so long to redo, given the fact that some of the numbers don’t add up any more. That’s the problem with only running mental calculations.

“Fire isn’t too hard, but I don’t know how to make it just suddenly-“ She makes a whooshing sound and makes an exploding gesture.

“Maybe you’re doing it wrong.” As usual his terseness goes unnoticed by her, and she sighs, pulling a face.

“Maybe. There are a lot of different ways to do magic.” She looks contemplative for a moment, before getting distracted by a bee bumbling past.

“How are _you_ doing it?” Kaiba asks, telling himself that it’s no different to asking Mokuba a Socratic question to help him with his homework. 

“The same way as everything else. I just expect the thing to be warm. But then I have to make it warmer and warmer until it’s on fire. So there’s no-“ She mimes an explosion again.

“But you can’t imagine it at the point where it bursts into flames-”

“-Because then it doesn’t feel like it fits with reality enough.” She rests her chin on her hand and Kaiba frowns.

Her principles make more sense than any of the other explanations of … _non-normative forces_ he’s seen people give. For Mana a result can be obtained with the combination of expectation and willpower, so long as it fits within certain boundaries. She of course has never phrased it like this, preferring the more poetic: _“It’s about knowing what something is like, or what it will do - knowing in the way you know when you step there will be ground under your feet, or the sun will rise tomorrow. Then making yourself feel that before the thing you want to happen. Using your certainty to push it to do what you expect.”_

But it seems to be the gist. He wonders if he’s deranged, because it almost feels like it makes sense.

“How would _you_ do it?” Mana asks. She’s been asking that increasingly over the last few weeks. 

Kaiba is about to give his usual deflective reply, but the warmth of the book in his hands gives him pause. He _does_ know how he would do it, and more than that, he wants to know if it would work.

He suppresses the urge to check that he’s not being overheard, pulls a pen from his pocket, and rips out the blank back page from the book. Mana grins at him. In an attempt to wipe the smile off her face, he asks her what she can remember him telling her about atoms. 

They sit there for a few minutes, while he draws very incorrect diagrams that almost pain him, but are necessary to get the point across. Gets Mana to rub her hands together fast and feel the heat - which isn’t the same thing, but she’s trying to set something on fire here, not pass an exam. It doesn’t have to work, she just has to think it will work.

They get up and he points Mana towards a rather ugly hydrangea to serve as her first subject. He’s always hated it. She looks back at him, serious and focussed in a way that he only sees with … _this sort of thing_ or when her cake is failing to rise. He braces himself in anticipation, then nods. 

_WHOOSH_

The heat is intense as the whole thing goes up in an instant. She squeals in delight and runs inside to fetch Mahad, exclaiming excitedly to him without mentioning atoms or anyone else’s involvement - she can be tactful when she remembers to be. Kaiba swiftly gets the hose.

 _"Witchcraft to the ignorant, simple science to the learned.”_ Says a voice inside his head.

He frowns and douses the burning bush.

  


* * *

  


Kaiba taps away at his laptop, firing off emails. He’s declined to play Uno, which is the game Atem is attempting to teach everyone tonight.

Getting the heads of department together is proving to be like herding cats, or - he looks up to see Kisara wandering off and Set insisting on tea before they start - like herding ancient Egyptians. 

“Tea?” Set asks.

Kaiba pointedly raises his cup and takes a sip of the coffee that Mana gave him ten minutes ago.

“You’d rather drink something stone cold than something I’ve made, good to know.” Set says sharply, and heads off to the kitchen.

Everyone sighs but otherwise ignores them and continues to go over the rules, while Kaiba looks questioningly at Mana.

“Why do you have to be rude to him?” She whispers.

“I didn’t do anything, it’s still warm, you gave it to me… eleven minutes ago.” He says, checking the clock. She stares at him. Shakes her head a little. He checks the clock again. An _hour_ and eleven minutes ago - damn Sonoda, eating at his time even when he’s not in the room. 

He pointedly tries to ignore the steaming cup.

This might be an issue.

  



End file.
